Where do you buy your games?

[ImMelody]

The "when do you stop collecting" made me decide to start this thread. I know the general Goodwill :angry:, garage/yard/tag sales and ebay.. But curious to see where everyone goes to get their best value on old games.

When we were in TX, we had several different places we could go to CGX, Movie Trading Company, Entertainmart (kinda sorta), FX. It was a good market, I thought. But we moved to MD and have found the abyss of video game collecting.... except for this guy at a flea market... He has a set price for all games of a console. So like NES games are all $X amount and SNES are a little more.. and each generation up, he charges a little more. And every time I go in, he has new games and gives me the bin to go through. :love:

[LimitedEditionMuseum]

Amazon and JJgames.com

[wiggyx]

I do a large amount of shopping at "The Exchange". Not gonna find a copy of Earthboind for 5 bucks, but there are definitely deals to be found on the lesser known titles occasionally.

http://m.facebook.com/TheExchangeStores?id=129892863720803&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FTheExchange Stores&_rdr


Other than that, I trade with a lot of folks via the web and constantly keep an eye on eBay plus whatever sweet deals pop up on good ol' Cheap Ass Gamer.

[BydoEmpire]

Mostly Flea World - a permanent, weekend flea market near Orlando with 2-3 game dealers. For a good chunk of last year I would take my son there after his gymnastics class every weekend. Every so often they'd have something good, and one place always had 8-bit games b2g1f and another place had an 'everythying $1' rack.

I do check out garage sales, although I only find something interesting every couple of years. I did find a box of Colecovision games and accessories a couple months ago, which was cool.

I'm not buying that many games anymore. I will still pick up pre-crash stuff I don't have if it's reasonably priced, or the occasional NES, SMS or Genny game I want to play, but I'm not really 'working on' the collection.

[Greg2600]

In order of frequency...

1. Ebay
2. Digital Press NJ Store (I'm lucky to live close by)
3. Forums like Atari Age and Digital Press
4. Gamestop only when the systems start getting on "clearance"
5. Craigslist
6. Play N Trade

[The 1 2 P]

But we moved to MD and have found the abyss of video game collecting.... except for this guy at a flea market... He has a set price for all games of a console. So like NES games are all $X amount and SNES are a little more.. and each generation up, he charges a little more. And every time I go in, he has new games and gives me the bin to go through. :love:

I use to live in Maryland and currently still work there so I get to hunt thru places down there still. Beyond Goodwill and yard sales flea markets are probably your best bet. The Salvation Army stores I have been too all sucked and the only franchise game stores they had around the Baltimore/Baltimore Co. area all closed up years ago. Well theres an import franchise chain that still has 2 of their 5 stores opened called Power Gamer. Sometimes you can find deals there but alot of stuff is priced in ebay territory. You just have to look around a bit and use all resources(yard sales, pawn shops, Goodwills, etc) and eventually you will find some good stuff cheap.

[sloan]

Cheapest deals I get normally go in this order, least expensive to most expensive;

1. Salvation Army
2. yard/garage sales
3. pawn shops
4. Goodwill
5. used game shops
6. ebay

I have never bought from amazon or game gavel, and only once off a gaming forum.

[CatTehBus]

-eBay
-Salvation Arrmy
-Value Village
-Flea Market
-Goodwill
-Garage Sales

[ImMelody]

I use to live in Maryland and currently still work there so I get to hunt thru places down there still. Beyond Goodwill and yard sales flea markets are probably your best bet. The Salvation Army stores I have been too all sucked and the only franchise game stores they had around the Baltimore/Baltimore Co. area all closed up years ago. Well theres an import franchise chain that still has 2 of their 5 stores opened called Power Gamer. Sometimes you can find deals there but alot of stuff is priced in ebay territory. You just have to look around a bit and use all resources(yard sales, pawn shops, Goodwills, etc) and eventually you will find some good stuff cheap.

We've found a few more than just Power Gamer, but all are around ebay prices (and some even higher which is ridiculous!). My organization is boycotting Goodwill, so not going there.. We did get a good deal today at my favorite flea market.. $5 ea for 5 games. Including Star Fox. Excited about that.

[Flam]

Ebay (I usually look for the games with the '... or best offer' option. I end up paying what I think is fair.

Also, on a side note. I have a hard time believing people can find NES games at garage/yard sales anymore. I mean, the days of parents selling off juniors crap after he's left the nest are gone in terms of the time period relevant to NES games.

[Robocop2]

Depends on what gen you are talking about really. Since this is in the Classic forum I'll forget the current gen in my list

but in order:
1. eBay (mostly a convenience factor)
2. DP and/or Atari Age forum BST
3. There is a local shop called Game Over that I frequent and pick stuff up from when its not priced insanely.

Honestly a good mix of the three above with no real winner. I find more reasonable deals around here but if I'm in the impatient mood eBay satiates that desire most of the time. The local shop is somewhere I go to support the only non jackass independent here in town. There is another one but after the owner had no posted price for a system I was interested in at the time and rather than giving a reasonable offer proceeded to look up the eBay price on his computer and shoot out the highest BIN currently in effect after I had already done that homework I won't go there again.

Goodwill and Salvation Army hunting here is surprisingly awful. One would think in a town of over a million folks that there would be a better selection but not so far as I can tell.

[XYXZYZ]

eBay
Hit Japan
Japan Game Stock
And on the rare occasion I buy a new (current gen) game, I just go to Game Stop.

[Ryudo]

Ebay
Amazon
thrift stores
import sites and other less known
Play N Trade
Worlds Game Store (love this place,did a vid on it last summer with my crappy camera I had then
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LyUB1KDpgkk&list=UU1eWLK3pF8laCdtK5kJ_mZQ&index=10

[Bloodreign]

Depends on what gen you are talking about really. Since this is in the Classic forum I'll forget the current gen in my list


3. There is a local shop called Game Over that I frequent and pick stuff up from when its not priced insanely.



Quoting because I've been to that shop months ago, they have great great stock, but their prices are absolutely mind numbing, some things you can get lucky and get cheap, but you'll get slammed on something else that shouldn't go for the prices that they sell it, very Jekyll and Hyde. The same store chain in Austin is just as bad as well as the other in Austin that moved from Sunset Valley, all up to the moon in prices on some common games, yet I paid $15 for a boxed Shinobi III.

For another crazy thing about that place, I got two hard to get cheap imports off them for $50 a pop, Kyukyoku Tiger II Plus Saturn and PS1 Image Fight/X-Multiply (good luck finding both for $50 on ebay), but paid $20 for SMS Wonderboy, and no Gameboy game loose was less than $9.99 (Mr. Chin's Gourmet Palace goes for a little less on ebay). Not sure how a Saturn and PS1 game that can go for way more online, can be found cheap there, yet something more common can go for more than online at times. I asked them how much a Gunstar Heroes for Genesis would go for if they had one, the guy quoted me, $45.......LOOSE, insane.

The only ones I didn't visit was the one in Round Rock, one in San Marcos (because it didn't exist yet when I went), and the one in Houston, but I have them all liked on Facebook so I can see their stock, but I have no way to get to Texas, so it wouldn't pay me to call for a price quote on anything, but I'm betting these 3 stores aren't cheap either. Plus they need to get some shops next door into Louisiana in my neck of the woods. All I have here is a Buy Back, a Play N Trade I wiped out a couple years back, and what's left of a Game Over shop that closed, and the guy moved his remaining stock into an anime shop (dude had some good stuff when he was in his old location and had just opened, cleaned him out too, got stuff waaaaay below ebay pricing with him, good dude to deal with).

[IHatedSega]

I was squinty eyed and thought this said "Why do you hug your games?" XD

Ive never bought games online, now I buy them from retro stores since theyre the only ones that have PS2 games.

[Tron 2.0]

Amazon
Ebay
Japangamestock

No play'n'trade around here or other places to buy games for older consoles.So it's mostly online for me.

[AceAerosmith]

Wherever I can find new(er) games for around $20. Usually eBay.

[wiggyx]

eBay
Hit Japan
Japan Game Stock
And on the rare occasion I buy a new (current gen) game, I just go to Game Stop.

Easily took $2K+ from me this year. Great seller :D

Plus, if you've dealt with him enough, he'll let you sit on won auctions for up to a month or so before paying so that you can combine as many transactions as possible.

[Orion Pimpdaddy]

60% Local mom and pop game stores
40% Ebay
<1% Thrift stores

[Polygon]

Here in Utah there aren't a lot of options. In recent years I've bought pretty much all my retro games online. Usually from eBay, Amazon, Game Gavel, and eCrater. I've bought some here in the for sale section as well. I got really excited last week though. I was going grocery shopping and a new store had popped up right next to the grocery store. It was a retro video game store. That's really surprising for me to see in Utah, let alone the small town I live in. Anyhow, I had to go inside. What I found was a major disappointment. There weren't a ton of games, but that wasn't the worst part. I started shuffling through them and the prices made me want to vomit. Let's use Mario Kart 64 as an example. Now, I have this game. I bought it new when I got my N64. So I love this game. I would have considered buying it as a spare. Too bad they wanted $45 for it. It was loose and it wasn't it the best of shape. For that price I could go on eBay and get it complete and in great condition. What a waste.

I've been watching a lot of pickup videos on You Tube lately and once it warms up in the spring I'm going to start checking out swap meets, pawn shops, flea markets, good wills, and all the other places you can think of to find some games in the wild. Seeing people getting stuff like Turtles in Time for $5 is really awesome. Even if I don't there are a lot of great games these people are finding for between $1 and $5. I collect everything complete. Most stuff is loose, but it seems there are some complete finds. Still, loose games are great for spares.

[The 1 2 P]

We've found a few more than just Power Gamer, but all are around ebay prices (and some even higher which is ridiculous!). My organization is boycotting Goodwill, so not going there.. We did get a good deal today at my favorite flea market.. $5 ea for 5 games. Including Star Fox. Excited about that.

I'm not sure how long you have been in Maryland but 5-7 years ago there were several different chains, including Game Crazy, Starland Games, Pandora's Cube, Planet Replay and one Play N Trade that closed down before I ever got there. Planet Replay was the best since they allowed me to trade in all of my penny strategy guides from Best Buy for $3-$8 each. They had several stores for a few years but finally ended up with a single store in Rosedale before closing that down last year or 2011. This is why I now use yard sales, flea markets, Goodwills and any other place I can find since around here there are no more dedicated game stores(Power Gamer isn't local to me). I'm curious why you are boycotting Goodwill. Did you have an unpleasant incident there or is it due to pricing?

[DK1105]

I mostly buy from thrift stores. I like driving around and hunting for games. Their are a few small used gaming stores I go to as well. For me a lot of the enjoyment of collecting is hunting around.

[needler420]

Mostly Flea World - a permanent, weekend flea market near Orlando with 2-3 game dealers. For a good chunk of last year I would take my son there after his gymnastics class every weekend. Every so often they'd have something good, and one place always had 8-bit games b2g1f and another place had an 'everythying $1' rack.

I do check out garage sales, although I only find something interesting every couple of years. I did find a box of Colecovision games and accessories a couple months ago, which was cool.

I'm not buying that many games anymore. I will still pick up pre-crash stuff I don't have if it's reasonably priced, or the occasional NES, SMS or Genny game I want to play, but I'm not really 'working on' the collection.

This. Everyone comes to FL with their games and grows old and forgets the value of their games. It's a vicious cycle here.

[sloan]

All the posters on this thread, and I'm the only one who hits pawn shops? There are many good deals to be had at the pawns.

[Atarileaf]

I've gotten some good deals at pawn shops. Although I don't have it anymore, I did get a fully functional Intellivision with a couple dozen boxed games for $50 a couple of years ago.

I used to go to a local place out in the county. It was just called "The Barn". It was a place that bought and sold estates and I've gotten some great deals there over the years like a loose Vulture Attack for the 2600 for $3

Unfortunately that place has been closed for about a year now and I don't know if or when it will reopen

[vrikkgwj]

A Baltimore native here as well - Power Gamer is good, their seletion is usually good, but sometimes their prices are a little odd.

[Hwj_Chim]

Online ebay and amazon.

Other than that Bookmans.

[The 1 2 P]

All the posters on this thread, and I'm the only one who hits pawn shops? There are many good deals to be had at the pawns.

I've gone to pawn shops but have found a good gaming deal once out of the 50+ times I'll visited various pawn shops. Those aren't very good odds and thats the reason I rarely hit them up anymore. Most of the good finds around here are within Goodwill or thrift stores.

[A.C. Sativa]

I've given up on retro stuff, the prices are just out of control these days, though I'll still check out any garage sales I see, and occasionally check out the local Craigslist. For newer stuff there's a little store right around the corner from me, and if he doesn't have what I need I just go to Target or Best Buy. Gamestop can eat multiple dicks, they'll never get another fucking dime out of me.

[Atarileaf]

Gamestop can eat multiple dicks.

Wow, really takes the term "corporate cannibalism" to a more literal level doesn't it.

[Daria]

Gamestop can eat multiple dicks, they'll never get another fucking dime out of me.

I feel that there's a story behind this.

[A.C. Sativa]

I feel that there's a story behind this.

Not really. It wasn't any one single incident, just too many instances of really pushy salespeople, them charging 4-5x for used games what they pay for them, and them selling defective merchandise. Mostly the first two.

[ImMelody]

I'm not sure how long you have been in Maryland but 5-7 years ago there were several different chains, including Game Crazy, Starland Games, Pandora's Cube, Planet Replay and one Play N Trade that closed down before I ever got there. Planet Replay was the best since they allowed me to trade in all of my penny strategy guides from Best Buy for $3-$8 each. They had several stores for a few years but finally ended up with a single store in Rosedale before closing that down last year or 2011. This is why I now use yard sales, flea markets, Goodwills and any other place I can find since around here there are no more dedicated game stores(Power Gamer isn't local to me).

Are any of those still around? I know Game Crazy closed before we moved here. We've not gone to Pandora's Cube yet. There's a new store nearly to PA north of Baltimore we went to... Save Point. They have stacks of $5 games and such and also a full arcade. If it weren't so far, I'd totally do my kids' birthday party there. But most of the 'big name games' they have priced above ebay prices.


I'm curious why you are boycotting Goodwill. Did you have an unpleasant incident there or is it due to pricing?

The organization I work for (ie, my day job) is boycotting Goodwill due to their paying people with disabilities subminimum wage. Some as low as $1.44/hr. (And what sucks is that it's completely legal...) Sorry, off my soap box!

[The 1 2 P]

Are any of those still around? I know Game Crazy closed before we moved here. We've not gone to Pandora's Cube yet. There's a new store nearly to PA north of Baltimore we went to... Save Point. They have stacks of $5 games and such and also a full arcade. If it weren't so far, I'd totally do my kids' birthday party there. But most of the 'big name games' they have priced above ebay prices.

Game Crazy and Planet Replay are both gone, Starland is gone(they now operate strictly from their estarland website), theres supposedly one Pandora's Cube left in College Park but I'm not sure if they are still open(I've only been to the other two stores they had...before they closed down). And theres one Play N Trade store in Lusby although I've never been there. It's always best to call ahead before venturing off to any new locations because you never know if they are still open or not.